Security Levels

Bi-Weekly and Annual Pay Caps on
Premium Pay

General Schedule (GS) and other covered employees cannot normally
earn more in a regular bi-weekly pay period than the amount that a
GS-15, step 10 or level V of the Executive Schedule would earn in a
bi-weekly pay period. Employees may receive certain types of “extra”,
premium or overtime pay only to the extent that the greater of these two
caps is not exceeded. (See 5 U.S.C. 5547(a) and 5 CFR 550.105)

In certain emergency or mission critical situations, an agency may
apply an annual premium pay cap instead of a biweekly premium pay cap,
subject to the conditions provided in law and regulation. (See 5 U.S.C.
5547(b) and 5 CFR 550.106-550.107.) This adjustment in the pay cap
changes the calculation methodology so that employees may not exceed the
annual rate of pay (rather than the bi-weekly) of either the GS-15 step
10 or the rate for level V of the Executive Schedule. The approval
authority required to change the biweekly pay cap in an emergency
depends on the nature of the emergency and is delegated to the
Commandant, Secretary of Department of Homeland Security (DHS), or the
Office of Personnel Management (OPM).

The biweekly pay limitation in 5 U.S.C. 5547 is also a ceiling on
compensatory time off. Compensatory time off is merely an alternative
form of payment for overtime work. As such, the value of an hour of
compensatory time off is equal to the overtime hourly rate that is
payable in dollars. Thus, the number of hours for which employees may
receive monetary overtime pay is also the number of hours of
compensatory time off that may be credited in a pay period. Employees
may not exceed the biweekly pay limitation by choosing compensatory time
off as a substitute for monetary overtime pay.

Employees at the GS-15, step 10 are unable to earn overtime pay or
compensatory time for work performed even if the bi-weekly pay cap is
lifted.